Focusing on poor women

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Focusing on poor women

• Symposium on the harmonisation of gender
  indicatorsCanberra, 15-16 June 2006
• Joanne Crawford

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(No Transcript)
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• ?The fact that tracking progress on gender
  equality and womens rights is on the agenda is,
  itself, a sign of progress. But for commitments
  to have an impact, we need accountability,
  action, and political will.?
• Noeleen Heyzer, Progress of the World's Women
  2002, Volume 2 Gender Equality and the
  Millennium Development Goals, UNIFEM 2002, p.
  viii

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Where are we today?

• ?Despite much progress in recent decades, gender
  inequalities remain pervasive in many dimensions
  of lifeworldwide.?
• The World Bank Group (2006) World Development
  Indicators 06

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Where are we today?

• ? there has been very little progress in the
  official reporting of sex-disaggregated data in
  the past three decades,? with Africa and Oceania
  lagging behind other continents.
• ?official national data on basic demographic and
  social statistics relevant to gender are at times
  deficient, out-of-date, fragmented or simply
  unavailable.?
• The Worlds Women 2005 Interim Report

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Recording womens existence an issue

• Reporting of births and deaths is quite bleak
  with the need for action especially urgent in
  the LDCs, where data on births is acutely lacking
  and appears to have deteriorated with time.
• The Worlds Women 2005 Interim Report
• Though we can estimate the millions of missing
  women (Sen) from skewed male - female ratios.

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Opportunities challenges...

• The focus on accountability aid effectiveness
  presents a strategic opportunity for more
  systematic review of commitments
  implementation, what works what doesn't,
  including in relation to gender equality
• measuring inequality change is central to this
• but significant statistical needs challenges
• and capacity commitment varies

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that are political, technical practical

• Can the sector harmonise its collective efforts
  so that we establish a common basis for measuring
  the gender impact of development work? If we can
• we will have a better idea of what works well
• contemporary learnings can be shared
  incorporated in sector practice, improving
  quality, effectiveness impact
• we will enable greater progress on all the MDGs

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Our task

• Put forward some ideas and issues to help frame
  and prompt a focus on poor women in the
  discussions that follow
• Encourage reflection on what we mean by poverty
• Timor Leste anecdote how can you call us poor?

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so that we focus on ...

• Substantive outcomes we think are most important
  for enabling quality gender work, the impact of
  which we can measure
• What we can do at and through these discussions
  and afterwards
• But especially, investments that make a real
  difference to the lives of poor women

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Three priority groups

• ?...action on the seven priorities is
  particularly important for three subpopulations
  of women
• Poor women in the poorest countries and in
  countries that have achieved increases in
  national income, but where poverty remains
  significant.
• Adolescents...
• Women and girls in conflict postconflict
  settings.?
• UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education
  and Gender Equality (2005), Taking Action
  Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women.

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UN Millennium Taskforces rationale

• ?Gender inequalities exist among the rich and
  the poor, but they tend to be greater among the
  poor, especially for inequalities in capabilities
  and opportunities.
• Moreover, the wellbeing and survival of poor
  households depend on the productive and
  reproductive contributions of their female
  members. Also, an increasing number of poor
  households are headed or maintained by women. A
  focus on poor women is therefore central to
  reducing poverty.?

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Gender inequality poverty

• ?Gender inequality is part of the processes
  of causing and deepening poverty? and must
  therefore be part of measures to eradicate it.
• Naila Kabeer Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty
  Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals

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Who are poor women in the poorest countries?

• UN Millennium Taskforce report doesnt define
• More generally, goes to how we understand poverty
• Conceptual debates underline
• the complexity of poverty
• of the factors that affect and reproduce
  poverty
• hence the need for multidimensional
  understandings and responses

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What is poverty? - in brief...

• Not just about income / GDP (which obscures or
  under-value women's contribution activity
  levels by defining out areas of (unpaid) work
  where women dominate, such as child rearing or
  housework, work in the informal or non-market
  sector)
• Human development development of human
  capabilities - the process of expanding the
  range of things that a person could do and be in
  her life, ie the real freedoms that people
  enjoy (Sen)
• Not just about the means to survive but the
  capability to thrive
• Poverty is redefined as the deprivation of basic
  capabilities

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So not being poor means women...

• can sustain the capabilities, assets, and
  activities required for a means of living
• have the ability to cope with stresses and shocks
• and can maintain and enhance these capabilities
  and assets without undermining the natural
  resource base
• A persons capabilities reflect her empowerment,
  the power that she has to be the person she wants
  to be and to have the kind of life she wants to
  lead Robeyns 2001

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???

• Can we really say this describes the situation of
  most (or even many) women in the developing
  contexts in which we work?
• Need to see the focus on the poorest in context
• Millennium Taskforce Report is all about the
  importance of a focus on women in order to
  achieve the MDGs
• with an emphasis on interventions that
  particularly benefit the poorest - those whose
  capabilities are most constrained

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Seeing poverty differently

• If poverty is understood as limiting
  opportunities to live a life one has reason to
  value, then in a world where gender is a
  significant barrier, focusing on women itself can
  be a way to reach the very poor.
• Defining poverty differently shifts who we see as
  experiencing poverty

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Reaching poor women

• Its not just measuring the impact of what you do
  but also of how you do it
• Eg, a defining characteristic of very poor women
  is their exposure/vulnerability to shocks. When
  you have no buffer, its hard to take risks or
  see beyond the short term.
• If we want to involve very poor women, consider
  incorporating ways to mitigate or socialise
  aspects of risk
• and recognise and address their opportunity costs
  - for example, by providing food or child care
• ?Indicator meaningful participation of women in
  determining goals, objectives performance
  indicators

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Participation

• Involve women, especially poor women, because
  they stand to benefit most from investments in
  community infrastructure (and public goods in
  general)
• We know, we know - but still it doesnt happen
  enough
• A World Bank evaluation of 122 water projects
  found that the effectiveness of a project was six
  to seven times higher where women were involved
  than where they were not.
• ?Indicator meaningful participation of women in
  issue diagnosis, decision making, implementation
  management of community infrastructure

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Sounds obvious?

• But not always what we do
• Often supply-driven, institution-driven,
  expert-driven - focus on technical inputs,
  services, production
• Need to think holistically about
• Things that poor women might be very vulnerable
  to
• The assets resources that help them thrive
  survive
• The policies institutions that impact on their
  livelihoods
• How poor women respond to threats opportunities
• What sort of outcomes poor women aspire to

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Focusing on poor women means

• Seeing development from the perspective of poor
  women
• Understanding the specificities and complexity of
  their context
• Potentially, has major implications for how we
  work
• as specialists - within country programs
• as donor agencies - with other donors

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Ways of working

• More information, more analysis, better
  partnerships ... and more time
• Especially more and better gender analysis
• Participatory methods for impact analysis
• eg wealth ranking communities can provide a
  context-specific understanding of who is really
  poor and what has changed
• Better monitoring of development impact (and of
  organisational performance to address policy
  evaporation)
• ?Indicator process indicator?

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Reaching poor women invest in basic
infrastructure

• ?Lack of basic sanitation safe water is an
  acute problem for the women girls who live in
  poor overcrowded urban slums and in the rural
  areas of the developing world. Many have to wait
  to relieve themselves until dark, sometimes
  confronting the fear the reality of harassment
  sexual assault...
• In many countries, school attendance by girls is
  lower and drop-out rates are higher in schools
  that have no access to safe water and no separate
  toilet facilities for boys and girls... ?
• For her its the big issue Putting women at the
  centre of water supply, sanitation and hygiene,
  Evidence Report, WASH Campaign, March 2006

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Reaching poor women invest in basic
infrastructure

• ? ... women and girls in low-income countries
  spend 40 billion hours every year fetching and
  carrying water from sources which are often far
  away and may not, after all, provide clean water.
  From this standpoint, it is simple to understand
  that a woman could be empowered by having a
  nearby pump that conveniently supplies enough
  safe water for her family.?
• For her its the big issue Putting women at the
  centre of water supply, sanitation and hygiene,
  Evidence Report, WASH Campaign, March 2006
• ?Indicator hours per day (year) women spend
  collecting water

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Focus on the informal sector

• The poorest women in the world are employed in
  agriculture or the informal sector and their work
  is vastly undercounted in employment statistics.
  
• Womens share of self-employment and informal
  sector employment is increasing faster than that
  of men
• Indicators here will capture circumstances of
  poorest women

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Focus on the informal sector

• Track employment in the informal economy
• Develop a decent work indicator
• Measure extent to which women are paid a living
  wage
• Number of women agricultural workers who own land
• Sex differentials in income from employment
• Occupational segregation
• Effect of small children in household on work
  participation (reflects differences in family
  care responsibilities)

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References / links

• http//wash-cc.org/pdf/publication/FOR_HER_ITs_THE
  _BIG_ISSUE_Evidence_Report-en.pdf
• United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on
  Education and Gender Equality (2005), Taking
  Action Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering
  Women. Earthscan.
• The World Bank Group (2006) World Development
  Indicators 06, International Bank for
  Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank,
  Washington, Table 1.5, http//devdata.worldbank.or
  g/wdi2006/contents/Section1.htm
• Robeyns, Ingrid (2001), Sens capability approach
  and feminist concerns, paper presented to a
  conference on Sens capability approach, St
  Edmunds College, Cambridge, 5-7 June 2001
• Robeyns, Ingrid (2003), Sens Capability
  Approach and Gender Inequality Selecting
  Relevant Capabilities, Feminist Economics, vol 9
  (2 3)
• Sen, Amartya (1989) Development as Capabilities
  Expansion, Journal of Development Planning 19
  41 58
• Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko (2003), The Human
  Development Paradigm Operationalizing Sens
  Ideas on Capabilities Feminist Economics 9(2 3)

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References / links

• Demographic and Social Statistics Branch, Special
  Report of the World's Women 2005 Progress in
  Statistics Focusing on sex-disaggregated
  statistics on population, births and deaths
  (hereafter The Worlds Women 2005 Interim
  Report). Prepared by the UN Statistics Division
  for the Commission on the Status of Women
  interactive panel discussion on remaining
  challenges in relation to statistics and
  indicators, 8 March 2005, New York
• Kabeer, Naila (2003) Gender Mainstreaming in
  Poverty Eradication and the Millennium
  Development Goals A handbook for policy-makers
  and other stakeholders, Commonwealth Secretariat,
  International Development Research Centre, CIDA